Medical Research
The UK study has found that debilitating problems thought to be caused by statins are seldom caused by the actual drug.
It points to a 'nocebo effect' which is causing the problems, with users believing that the drug will make them sick. The study found a stark 90% of cases may be caused by the 'nocebo effect'.
The British Heart Foundation has said the results are undeniable.
Statins are one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the UK, with nearly 8 million prescriptions.
A new Covid-19 vaccine, from the US company Moderna, is nearly 95% effective, early data show. The trial involved 30,000 people in the US, with half being given two doses of the vaccine, four weeks apart.
"These effects are what we would expect with a vaccine that is working and inducing a good immune response," said Prof Peter Openshaw, from Imperial College London.
Researchers from Britain’s Oxford University have found that 20% of Covid-19 patients are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within 90 days. The study analyzed over 62,000 cases of Covid-19 in the United States and has been published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.
Mental health specialists not directly involved with the study evaluated the findings and stated that it adds to growing evidence that Covid-19 can increase the risk of a range of psychiatric illnesses as it can affect the brain and mind. People who had recovered, including those no longer reporting symptoms, exhibited significant cognitive deficits when controlling for age, gender, education level, income, racial-ethnic group and pre-existing medical disorders.
A research team at the Max Planck Institute in Münster succeeded in growing tissue clumps using robots that resemble the human midbrain. To do this, the researchers cultivate three-dimensional organ-like tissue structures, so-called organoids, from stem cells. Using robots, the organoids can be produced completely automatically. Experiments on the organoids could, for example, be used in drug research and thus end animal experiments.
Voters have approved Measure 109 that directs the Oregon Health Authority to create a state-licensed, psilocybin-assisted therapy program over the next two years. In addition, a regulation plan for the substance should be developed by the authorities as psilocybin remains a Schedule I substance under federal rules.
The measure aims to help patients with chronic mental health issues like PTSD, depression and addiction as well as reducing anxiety for patients who are dying.
Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has stated that a Covid-19 vaccine could be available in April 2021.
"The big numbers of supplies are due to start in April," so von der Leyen, adding that up to 50 million doses could be delivered monthly.
Japanese researchers have found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus strain can survive for nine hours on human skin, while the flu survives 1.8 hours.
They state that "the longer survival of SARS-CoV-2 on the skin increases contact-transmission risk", though "hand hygiene can reduce this risk".
An experimental study found that installing four commercial air purifiers in a classroom reduces aerosol concentrations by 90%. The team around Joachim Curtius of the Experimental Atmospheric Research Group of the Goethe University Frankfurt used one H13 filter in each of the devices, which can filter particles in a size of 0.1 particles in a size of 0.1 µm to 0.3 µm from the air.
Respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV2 are transmitted by droplet infection, touch and aerosols. Air filters can serve as a protective measure against aerosols that are incompletely retained by masks.
In intensive care units, artificial respiration causes most infections with antibiotic-resistant hospital germs. In his bachelor's thesis, medical technology student Ben Sicks researched the killing of germs and pathogens by irradiation with blue LEDs and found that the blue illumination of a tube caused a 99.9% reduction in the concentration of bacteria. For this discovery he was awarded the Applied Photonics Award by the Frauenhofer Institute Jena.
The virologists Harvey J. Alter (USA), Michael Houghton (Großbritannien) and Charles M. Rice (USA) have received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work discovering the hepatitis C virus.
The Nobel Committee stated that "prior to their work, the discovery of the Hepatitis A and B viruses had been critical steps forward, but the majority of blood-borne hepatitis cases remained unexplained. The discovery of Hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives".
A new center for the fight against cancer is to be built in Berlin. The German capital has been chosen as one of four new locations for the National Center for Tumor Diseases, as the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) announced on Wednesday. Existing locations are Heidelberg and Dresden.
The Governing Mayor Michael Müller has stated that Berlin "plays a key role in decisively advancing cancer research and developing new approaches in the early detection and treatment of cancer". The new center will have 10,000 square meters and contain research laboratories, an outpatient clinic and an information center.
Nine biopharmaceutical companies have signed a safety pledge, committing to "developing and testing potential vaccines for COVID-19 in accordance with high ethical standards and sound scientific principles."
AstraZeneca, BioNTech, Moderna, Pfizer, Novavax, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Merck have signed the pledge just a week after the CDC's vaccine distribution plans surfaced, suggesting a vaccine would be available by as early as late October.
Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine BNT162b2 has been approved for its Phase II/III clinical trial by German Paul-Ehrlich-Institut. If the trials prove successful, Pfizer and BioNTech will try to seek regulatory approval as early as October.
"A large, controlled Phase III study is a crucial prerequisite to prove the safety and efficacy of a vaccine. The integration of sites in Europe, and now especially in Germany, is aimed at supporting an approval in Europe," so BioNTech CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin.
The controversial French professor who repeatedly defended the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to help beat the coronavirus has been targeted by an ethics complaint that could see him face sanctions or barred from practicing, a medical association said Thursday.
The Marseille-based Didier Raoult is accused in the complaint by medical peers of spreading false information about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine.
Already in June 2019 the German biotech company Curevac and Tesla subsidiary Grohmann have applied for a patent for a newly developed vaccination printer.
A newly developed mobile "RNA Printer" is able to produce over a hundred thousand vaccination dosages in a few weeks. Originally developed to combat diseases like rabies and yellow fever it could potentially be used to produce a future Covid-19 vaccine given the approval for medical use of the printer and a vaccine.
With the help of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and sunlight, a global team of researchers has been able to purify brackish water and seawater into clean drinking water that meets the suggested quality of the World Health Organization.
According to the announcement, the new technology is more energy-efficient than current desalination processes and only uses one kilogram of MOF per day to generate 139,5 liters of clean water.
Lead author Professor Huanting Wang from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Monash University in Australia has stated that "desalination has been used to address escalating water shortages globally. Due to the availability of brackish water and seawater, and because desalination processes are reliable, treated water can be integrated within existing aquatic systems with minimal health risks".
Rolf Halden at Arizona State University has stated that "we are now providing a research platform that will allow us and others to look for what is invisible – these particles too small for the naked eye to see" as the health risk "really resides in the small particles".
The impact of microplastics in organs on human health is not yet known, but the researches expect to find it in future patients. They now developed a technique to detect chemical traces and tested it on samples of organs such as the lung, liver and kidney. The researchers were able to detect the microplastics in all 47 samples.
Future studies on the health effects of "these non-biodegradable materials" will be conducted according to Varun Kelkar of Arizona State University.
Based on data from South Korea, the United States and Israel analyzing the infections and spread of the coronavirus through children, researchers now believe that children can contract Covid-19 and easily spread it.
A group of 26 researchers from Sweden wrote that "Because children are contagious, can become seriously ill, and it is unclear today how a mild infection affects their future health, we should already at the start of school take measures to keep the infection down".
They recommend sport only outdoors, eating meals seperated in classes, avoiding group tasks and that masks should be worn at all times.
A saliva-based Covid-19 test developed by the Yale University and funded by the National Basketball Association and the National Basketball Players Association has gotten emergency authorization by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
The new salvia test from Yale University only costs around $4, compared to $60 in the best cased for the competing salvia test that has been developed at Rutgers University lap. Both tests have been granted the same permission by the Food and Drug Administration.
In a radio interview with Deutschlandfunk, the German Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn has stated: "it is not about being first somehow, but about having an effective, a tested and therefore safe vaccine, which - and this is the important part - will vaccinate 100 million, if not billions of people".
According to his judgment, Russia has not been transparent enough about the studies, trials and science behind the Covid-19 vaccine that has already been approved.
He stated that "at least we now know that there have been no phase 3 studies" adding that it could be "dangerous to start vaccinating millions". Possible negative effects could "be quite fatal to the acceptance of vaccination if it goes wrong" as the approved Vaccine "has not been sufficiently tested here".